Unsung Hero-127 Minutes
by MerthursFollower
Summary: Colin Creeveys death. Short oneshot.


**Author note:**

**The number at the beginning at the paragraph counts down to Harry Potter's 'death'. I wrote this as my school homework. We were meant to write a story with the title '127 hours' (nothing to do with the movie 127 hours) but I wrote 127 minutes...**

**The number at the beginning is a countdown of minutes to 'the end', when Voldemort hits Harry with the killing curse. After each break is a new section...**

* * *

A day of glory, a moment of fame  
Honour the bravery, remember their name  
Ordinary people, like me and you  
Loved ones at home, they have family too ~ Unsung Heroes,

* * *

127. Colin Creeveys POV  
Colin Creevey ran. He fired jinxes over his shoulder. A yell told him he'd hit a death eater.  
He ducked behind a tapestry and hurtled down the secret passageway.

As he burst through the other end he heard a cry, "Levicorpus!"  
He was yanked into the air by his ankles. A livid Professor McGonagall was pointing her wand at his face.  
"Creevey?" She asked incredulously, "what are you doing here? You're meant to be home!"  
"I snuck back to fight" he replied.  
She gently floated him down with a flick if her wand.  
She pinched the bridge of her nose, "Please tell me your brother isn't here"  
Colin shook his head, "He's safe. He's home"  
She sighed; I can't very well send you home during a battle. Make Hogwarts proud Mr Creevey"  
He nodded, before running off.

* * *

111  
Voldemort's voice reverberated from the walls and floor, and Colin realised that he was talking to Hogwarts and to all the surrounding area, that the residents of Hogsmede and all those still fighting in the castle would hear him as clearly as if he stood beside them, his breath on the back of their necks, a deathblow away.

"You have fought," said the high, cold voice, "valiantly. Lord Voldemort  
knows how to value bravery.  
"Yet you have sustained heavy losses. If you continue to resist me, you will all die, one by one. I do not wish this to happen. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a loss and a waste."  
Colin had frozen, along with everyone else.  
"Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat immediately.  
"You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured.  
"I speak now, Harry Potter, directly to you. You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest. If, at the end of that hour, you have not come to me, have not given yourself up, then battle recommences. This time, I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every last man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour."

Colin's heart sank. He knew beyond a doubt, that Harry would go to meet Voldemort. Harry would take anything upon himself if it would stop someone else from getting hurt. Colin knew Harry would sacrifice himself.

Colin ran towards the entrance hall. When he got there, he hid in an alcove, and waited.

* * *

82  
The castle was unnaturally silent. There were no flashes of light now, no bangs or screams or shouts. In the light from the Great Hall, Colin could see that the flagstones of the deserted entrance hall were stained with blood. Emeralds were still scattered all over the floor, along with pieces of marble and splintered wood. Part of the banisters had been destroyed.

* * *

70  
Colin heard footsteps walking towards the front doors from the direction of the forest. Colin flattened himself into the shadows. Someone wearing a black cloak marched past him. They hid in the rubble to the right of Colin, and sat in the darkness. Colin could just see the cloaked person's outline. They seemed to be waiting too.

* * *

45  
Colin heard footsteps. Slowly, someone else walked towards the doors.

Harry pulled of his invisibility cloak. He stood framed in the doorway. The light behind him threw his face into shadow. Colin was about to say something, when he saw movement. The unknown person stood up. They raised their wand. Colin launched himself forward and stunned them but it was too late. As the cloaked person fell backwards the flash of green light left their wand. Colin dived sideways into the pathway of the light. It hit him in the shoulder, knocking him backwards into a pile of rubble.  
Colin's last thought was, 'Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived'.  
The lights in Colin's eyes faded. His wand rolled out of his hand.

* * *

40. Harry's POV  
Neville nearly walked into him. He was only half of a pair that was carrying a body in from the grounds. Harry glanced down and felt another dull blow to his stomach: Colin Creevey, though underage, must have sneaked back just as Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had done. He was tiny in death.

"You know what? I can manage him alone, Neville," said Oliver Wood, and he heaved Colin over his shoulder if a fireman's lift and carried him into the Great Hall.  
Neville leaned against the door frame for a moment and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. He looked like an old man. Then he set off down the steps again into the darkness to recover more bodies.

Harry moved down the steps and out into the darkness. It was nearly four in the morning, and the deathly stillness of the grounds felt as though they were holding their breath, waiting to see whether he could do what he must.

* * *

19  
The Snitch. His nerveless fingers fumbled for a moment with the pouch at his neck and he pulled it out. I open at the close. Breathing fast and hard, he stared down at it. Now that he wanted time to move as slowly as possible, it seemed to have sped up, and understanding was coming so fast it seemed to have bypassed thought. This was the close.

This was the moment.

He pressed the golden metal to his lips and whispered, "I am about to die."  
The metal shell broke open. He lowered his shaking hand, raised Draco's wand beneath the Cloak, and murmured, "Lumos."  
The black stone with its jagged crack running down the centre sat in the two halves of the Snitch. The Resurrection Stone had cracked down the vertical line representing the Elder Wand. The triangle and circle representing the Cloak and the stone were still discernible. And again Harry understood without having to think. It did not matter about bringing them back, for he was about to join them. He was not really fetching them: They were fetching him.

He closed his eyes and turned the stone over in his hand three times.

* * *

1  
Voldemort and Harry looked at each other, and now Voldemort tilted his head a little to the side, considering the boy standing before him, and a singularly mirthless smile curled the lipless mouth.  
"Harry Potter," he said very softly His voice might have been part of the splitting fire. "The Boy Who Lived."

None of the Death Eaters moved. They were waiting: Everything was waiting. Hagrid was struggling, and Bellatrix was panting, and Harry thought  
inexplicably of Ginny, and her blazing look, and the feel of her lips on his— Voldemort had raised his wand. His head was still tilted to one side, like a curious child, wondering what would happen if he proceeded. Harry looked back into the red eyes, and wanted it to happen now, quickly, while he could still stand, before he lost control, before he betrayed fear— He saw the mouth move, and a flash of green light, and everything was gone.


End file.
